Persona 4 The AnimationShort Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student with special powers.
Seeing as how this was the most hyped up series of the new season… it felt oddly disappointing. I’m not referring to the characters, although that pee-moment certainly didn’t help, but what striked me the most is that the storytelling was completely off. In particular, this episode didn’t seem to care much about timing or build up. It didn’t seem to know how to create an atmosphere, it jumped around way too much instead of establishing things, and everything happened way too quickly . This episode had a very short attention span, which really hurt any attempts on drawing in the viewer: one moment the main character is in a shop, the next he dives in a tv. It just doesn’t flow well and there were a lot of anti-climaxes in this episode. Was the game really that long, forcing such a fast pacing? Oh, and this is just a small detail, but I consider it very important too: the show had what sounded like a great soundtrack, but it didn’t seem well used at all. There were lots of scenes with no background music at all, and it only started playing at the most predictable moments.OP:FunkyED:Again, funky. If only the rest of the soundtrack was like this.Potential: 60%

Boku wa Tomodachi ga SukunaiShort Synopsis: Our lead character is surrounded by cute girls.
For a while, this episode actually avoided the usual warning signs. When it was just the main male and female together, this show avoided fanservice, the female lead was eloquent, rather than stupid, and about the only big cliche was the deadpan snarker male lead. Then the second female lead arrived, the girls turned tsundere and they wasted no time in making boob jokes. This show… when I first read that it’d be about people who are bad at being friends, I thought that this would be a show about outcasts. Instead, the main cast consists out of two people with foreign looks, suffering from Japan’s xenophoby, and another character who refuses to talk to others because of… arrogance I guess. That was not what I expected. Strangely enough, these people didn’t seem to suffer from insecurities at all. Instead, the emotion that prevailed here was annoyance for not being able to make friends. It doesn’t have the biggest cliches: aside from the boob jokes this episode refrained from beating any dead horses, but it has relatively little that it can call its own. The xenophobia was probably this episode’s biggest asset, but that was handled very one-sidedly: everyone is afraid of the main characters, aside from the really good-looking girls (yay for subtlety!). This was neither the worst moe show of the season, but it also certainly wasn’t the best.OP:FANSERVICE!ED:Why the nuns?Potential: 40%

ChihayafuruShort Synopsis: Our lead character plays card games.
This had the best animation of the new season so far. Seriously, Madhouse made this series look absolutely gorgeous. The use of cg is excellent, while it completely lacks the acting problems of Madhouse’s usual series. The shots are all creative, the animation is smooth and life-like. It would be awesome if the creators could keep it up like that. The rest of the episode also was wonderful: instead of most series about games, the female lead Chihaya isn’t a complete rookie at the start: she has been playing the card games (and seriously, they’re not what you think: this is miles away from Yugioh) for a few years now. In fact, this series series shows how she got introduced to it when she was still a grade schooler. What especially caught me however was how well it used its animation to portray the game. The soundtrack is also exceptionally well used. This is one to keep an eye out for: rock-solid… though it’s a shame that it’s a manga adaptation. Of a manga that isn’t finished yet.OP:A bit generic, but certainly not the worst of the season.ED:Simple, but very pretty visuals, with a decent ballad.Potential: 90%

After checking out the manga I’d have to agree with psgels that this show risks being ruined by the end, although by the look of the start of the manga the author had a clear endpoint in mind. There’s 14 volumes out and I would guess by looking at the first 10 volumes that 10 is the halfway point. (only the first 10 have been scantilated :(

It was much better than I thought it was going to be. I have been less than impressed with most Madhouse series in the past few years, but if they keep the interesting storytelling and animation quality up this could be really great. Negatives:the music was nothing special

I liked the athmosphere it gave and the visuals look great and seems like the story will be done well with this ! I also like different kind of games and it seems to be well used here so this series will probably be an interesting series to follow. Since it’s a manga adaption that isn’t done yet I hope they will end it well or wait for the manga to end at some point. This one caught my attention so I will at least keep wathing it.

To answer your question about the length of Persona 4, psgels, yeah, it was that long. Once you start the game there’s over an hour of just heavy dialogue, so yeah, forcing the pacing in the beginning is something I can see. It really builds up by the end though. If the anime will do this too though, I don’t know.

In regards to Persona 4… they crammed the first 90 minutes of the game into 20 in order to get to the first battle by the first episode. It takes about two hours to introduce the setting, characters and plot too. A normal playthrough takes about 60-80 hours to get to the true end and about 15-20 hours of it is pure story related/cutscenes

Persona 4: They sped through introductory material to get to some action. It seems like a bit of a mistake to me, because it stunted the main cast a bit and makes things a bit confusing. However, the game really is long and the Scooby parts will easily fill up two cours.

Persona 4 (game) has a fun soundtrack and they seem to have just lifted that for the most part for the series. It’s hard for me to complain about that too much. Although it would be nice to have had some new music to buy.

I didn’t really like the lighting and gradients in some of the scenes.

Overall, not too bad. Without a better idea of how the rest of series will be paced it’s hard to tell yet if it’ll be a good adaptation or not.

Persona 4: Oh, as an addendum. They will mix really silly humor and serious business throughout the story. I’ve seen you praise that sort of thing in series with worse stories, but I have no idea if it will work for you in this case or not.

Yeah, the first episode was incredibly rushed. The scene of them getting to the room with the noose in it, for example, was really creepy in the game but they kind of just brushed it off in the anime. Also, Souji was actually not supposed to summon Izanagi here – in the game, he made a second visit to the TV world with Yosuke that had a lot of importance to the plot.

The shadows aren’t even supposed to attack normal people until certain conditions are met, but it seems they ignored that here.

Since Persona 4 won the poll, I’m assuming you’ll be blogging this? I’m glad, because the story really does get good as it goes along and I wouldn’t want you to drop a good series just because it starts off bad.

Well, for me the game was cloking more than 2 hours when I got to this part. The OST is funky and yet they don’t used it constantly, probably to protect it from getting stale (they’re loops, you see).

The pasing was pretty rushed for the first episode, the game had established Chie, Yosuke and Saki at that moment and the battle with the lying hableries (tongue things) had more explanation behind those things.

I belive the passing will slow down a bit after this and maybe the second chapter when you’re finally able to control the protagonist actions of the day and the grinding begins. They’ll have to go for the Social Links that, if made well, are Character Development in other name.

The problem I see is that they didn’t explained the concept (Persona) and Izanagi was just there, Souji knew what to do and all the infodumps of Igor where left out besides without the public getting a feel of Yosuke and Saki sempai the next episode will lose punch.

Was expecting this and that’s why I voted for P4 in the polls, it deserves patience.

Persona 4 would have needed a longer series to do it well, made worse by the fact that I dont think sticking to the way its presented in the game necessarily translates into an anime directly. Wasnt expecting much for the show and the first episode lived “up” to what I expected. Maybe it will get better, but I rather doubt it.

@Aera
I don’t think it would need longer series really, the start should had taken its time to build-up and establish characters instead of going for actionized first episode. Still, after the prologue, you spent a lot of time in random battles that, well, can be cut down and S. Links to be shown instead. I belive it is possible to have a well paced plot on 26 episodes.

Wait what? You didn’t like the storytelling? I think it was FANTASTIC! It felt so game-like! I think it’s a really interesting, experimental way and man I’m glad they had the guts to do it! I think what they did with Persona is awesome x3

@awieoefeiojf You… managed to put into words what I was thinking. I think psgels would have rated it even more negatively if he played the game. It felt to me like I was playing the game without the controller.

Yup, rushed. The emotional scenes made me burst in laughter. (Adachi puking was hilarious, it just seemed pasted there XDDD I’m sure I felt a little creeped out when I played this part) I hope they slow down a little in the next episodes…

Unlike most I liked the first episode, to me it’s a build up because honestly we haven’t even dipped our toe into the story. Also, I thought the pace worked well but I think because I played the video game, I have a different perspective.

I already know and love the characters. Know the story so I might be bias haha But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have problems with it.
I feel the “awakening” scene was…off. Like why was it in this episode anyway?! I hope it does slow down a little the next couple of episodes too though. In the video game, I think the opening was like 2 hours….and this is a very, VERY long game.

I can only say what others already said about the length of the game. It DOES take time to get somewhere and considering they decided to adapt some of the battles as well, they are gonna have some pacing issues along the way.
Let’s say it’s 26 episodes, that makes about 520 minutes or about 8h40m of runtime…and that for a game that takes about 60h on a first run. Cuts HAVE to be made…even though it’s sad.

I think the first episode did an okay job of introducing the setting…I hope they include some of the information along the way. I admit that it would have probably been a bad choice to spend the first episode with talking only.
Of course, for a better pacing it would have been nice if the episode only went to the first encounter with Mayonaka TV, but they have to consider an audience with less patience as well…especially when adapting a game that is known for it’s battle system…

Actually, I really liked the pacing: sure, it WAS rushed and the atmoshpere will probably suffer for it, but…

Well, two things: when most anime take its sweet time getting started, this felt a bit like an adaptation of a 60s Stan Lee comic: quick and to the point.

And this rushed pacing has the effect of mirroring the Main Character’s (calling him ‘yu’ seems odd) experience: here he is, on the SECOND DAY of his new life and shit just got WEIRD. He certainly did not get time to take a breath.

Also, I wonder if they botched the characterization here to focus on it during the S. Links? I mean, Yousuke was always a dork, but not THAT stupid. Even the wanting to pee thing was better handled on the game…

One last thing about the pacing: maybe they rushed it so much because the last series (persona trinity soul) sucked so much and this wasn’t at all like that snorefest?

I actually thought that Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai was quite good. I can understand why Yozora went all crazy when miss popularity turned up. To someone who is on the outer those sort of people almost seem like they are rubbing your face in it.

Persona 4 is so rushed. The director should have taken some time to develop MC. Even if he’s quiet, there should have been monologues. He has no personality whatsoever, which is ok in game, but really bad in anime. The fact that the director chooses not to give MC personality (one of the few things that can elevate the anime beyond the game) is stupid.

Persona 4 doesn’t make a good 26-episode anime to begin with. For such limited time, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor would fare much better. It has a more compact story, it builds atmosphere faster, less focus on side characters and no sidetracking.

I only took a peek at the 1st ep of Persona 4..and i thought it was ok. But you can tell the transition from game to anime did’nt go so well. So far, the only good thing about the show is that Shoji Meguro is doing the soundtrack.

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;(

(Sunday, Aug 2. 2015 09:47 PM)

@Masky: Are you talking about me?
Because if you are, you completely misread all I wrote…
But if that’s the case I don’t feel like explaining myself considering you probably don’t want to listen anyway…

Masky

(Sunday, Aug 2. 2015 02:09 PM)

Geez, people really make odd excuses when defending stuff they like ._.
…I feel like thats probably hypocritical comment coming from me since I’ve probably done that too, but I think I usually go with attitude of “Hey, you’d probably not like it anyway, but I think you are wrong about that thing” xD

Emma

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 09:47 PM)

@Aidan: I would recommend downloading it rather than browser-playing it as my browser kept crashing when I tried to.
Its quite short but it gives a great teaser and introduction to the game, that gets me excited for it.

Emma

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 09:45 PM)

@Aidan: Mangagamer have released the demo for kara no shoujo 2, they’ve also confirmed a release for Autumn. Its probably better to call this demo more of a prologue/compliment to the game with content exclusive to it.
Demo/prologue here: http://mangagamer.org/kns2/

AidanAK47

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 02:14 PM)

@invicableGod, Yep that comment was spam. Should have got rid of it first time I saw it.

Wicked

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 01:10 AM)

well, this place changed a lot. Gotta say, I’m not a fan of how they adapted GATE into an anime. It feels too decompressed. Manga did a better job at keeping the tension taut

;(

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 01:08 AM)

Also I am not the blog, I’m just a poster… I really hope you have enough sense to tell the difference…

;(

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 01:07 AM)

@Emo: you’re saying all that like that doesn’t fit your description to a T. Kinda sad actually…
Well I guess now at least I gave you one more thing to get angry about so your day seems just a bit more active than your last.

;(

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 01:03 AM)

I don’t think people are really expected to read it from the start anymore. I mean that’s probably why it stays popular in Japan considering people would have to be in their 20s at least to keep up from the start without reading hundreds of chapters just to keep up.

;(

(Saturday, Aug 1. 2015 01:00 AM)

Well admittly comics don’t seem to be that easy to follow (don’t actually read comics despite liking a lot of DC and marvel media), but anyway it’s not like the other long-running shounens in terms of continuity and more like the long-running comedies like say Kochikoma.

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